Coffee and skateboarding, skateboarding and coffee. On the surface they *may* not seem to go together, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find two subcultures that have found many ways to intertwine across the decades.
Sprudge has reported on similar confluences over the decadesโcoffee and hiking, coffee and camping, coffee and cycling, coffee and sport climbingโbut this one is personal to me. Growing up, Saturdays with my younger sister and dad consisted of early mornings on the road to discover a new skate park, and every one of those trips included a stop at a local coffee shop along the way. Wherever people gatherโespecially interesting peopleโthere will undoubtedly be coffee, but for skateboarders, like so many others, coffee offers fuel to the grind, and has become a part of the skating ritual for countless skateboards like me.
Now there’s even cafes that are taking these dual passions to the next level. Coffee shop/skate shop hybrids are still relatively rare, but they cater to their local communities of skaters and ramp watchers, and they’re showing the world that serious coffee is a great fit for skating culture. I wish there were a hundred of these places to report on, but there’s notโat least not yet. Instead, I took a look around to learn more about seven cafes across the United States serving coffee-loving skaters, offering espressos with a side of grip tape and a helmet. (Always wear a helmet.)
Let’s drop in and check these skate shop cafes out.
Together Skateboarding and Coffee
Together Skateboarding and Coffee entered my radar through word of mouth. Philadelphia is no stranger to great coffee concepts, but Together is, I dare say, the only space in town where you can grab great coffee, build a new skate deck, and read local skateboarding zines.
Co-owners Ron Cornwall and Sara Finne left their previous careers as TV producers in Brooklyn to open up this concept in the Brewery Town area of Philly. (They actually live in the same building as the shop.) Cornwall immediately knew he wanted to marry two important areas of his life outside of work, skating and coffee. With the help of friends and local artists, the two have made Together the local hangout spot.
โNo one can do anything alone,โ Cornwall tells me. โEven when you land a trick in skateboarding, you need your buddies there to push you, or you need somebody to film it.”
As we sat across a wall of decks, Cornwall and Finne greeted every person who walked through the door by nameโperhaps the most difficult trick of all to land.
Recommended drink: Orange Cardamom Espresso Tonic (Ron), Cortado (Sara)
Dogtown Coffee
Those invested in the history of street skating will love the lore of Dogtown Coffee. Dogtown Coffee is located in the landmark Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions space, a legendary community hub back with roots back to the 1970s and home to the famous Z-Boys, a group of surfers who took to the streets to adopt a new style of skating that revolutionized the sport we know today. (The 2010 documentary from filmmaker Stacy Peralta is highly recommended.)
Today Dogtown in Santa Monica is a holy grail spot for local skaters and beyond, and cafe co-founder Raz Assafโa surfer himselfโis well aware of the cultural significance of the spot. Walking inside feels like entering the dream surf/skate/coffee combo shop, with various boards hanging from the ceiling and grand mural depicting the Z-Boys proudly displayed inside. (Tony Alva, perhaps the most famous of the Z-Boys, has given the shop his blessing.)
The cafe has now become a destination in itself. People can enjoy coffee, burritos, and acฬงaiฬ bowls after a skate session, but also feel a part of history when they walk through the doors.
Recommended drink: Salty Dog Iced Coffee
Buddies Coffee
If thereโs one thing to know about skateboarders, it’s that they are resourceful as hell and love to support each otherโs endeavors. Rachel Nieves, co-owner of Buddies Coffee saw this first hand when her boyfriend and fellow co-owner, pro skater Taylor Nawrocki, made an Instagram post requesting old skateboards for a secret project. โWe got over 150 boards and with the help of friends we turned it into a coffee cart.โ
From coffee cart to cafe complete with a roastery, Nieves and Nawrocki relied on each other, their community, and their determination to make Buddies everything they dreamed it to be. Now they have been featured in The New York Times and even have collaborated with Supreme in Brooklyn.
Aside from building their space and decking it out with skateboards and artwork, Nieves took it upon herself to learn how to roast coffee with encouragement from Nawrocki. Starting with small batches for daily operations at Buddies to now roasting coffee for other local restaurants and cafes, it’s a success story of taking up space and believing in your work. A resounding lesson from Buddies over four years of operation in Brooklyn.
โCoffee and skating intersect so much. Skaters come in to get a coffee, and figure out where they want to skate in the city,โ says Nieves. Buddies visitors have blends like Brick and Wallride to choose from, but the customer baseโs unanimous favorite is the coquito latte, which uses Nievesโs family recipe (hold the rum) instead of plain steamed milk.
Recommended drink: Coquito Coldbrew
The Garden
Unique to this list is The Garden in Rochester, Minnesota, which not only has a cafe and skate shop, but a whole indoor skate park. Equipped with a skate team and skating lessons, Laura Kramer, co-owner and barista, wanted to provide her local community with a safe space to express themselves through skateboarding and with healthy fuel to snack on after. โWe didnโt have anything like that around here,โ Kramer recalls.
By sitting at a local skate park watching her son skate for hours and getting to know the skate community, Kramer wanted to give back and do something for the people who inspired her and her family. โThereโs this camaraderie about skateboarders. They may be competitive, but at the same time they are all so encouraging.โ The outpouring of love from the regular skaters prompted Kramer and her team to offer more activities on site.
Not only can park participantsโ partners or families watch them from a live camera in the cafe, but they can also participate in healthy competition at one of the many events The Garden hosts. From midnight skate sessions to community market events and skate competitions, thereโs always a way for the community to get together. โItโs one big family, honestly.โ
Recommended drink: Pancake Latte
Push & Pour
After pivoting from a successful traveling skateboarding career, Push & Pour owner and โmaster of coffeeโ Lucas Erlebach returned to his hometown of Boise, Idaho to open a coffee shop in an old car repair shop.
At first, people were pretty skeptical of the idea succeeding, but Erlebach was happy to see how successful the shop was from opening day. He and the team now have three locations and a roastery across Boise.
We’ve featured Boise’s cafe scene previously on Sprudge, but the city has grown considerably since that story was published in 2019, aided in no small part by a population and real estate boom coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Still, the city is around six hours by car from the next major city, and that makes community hubs like Push & Pour all the more important as a home base for collaborations and skate events. They also often hosts live music events at their shops where plenty of neighbors join to party and skate. โWe even built a 30-foot flat bar,” Erlebach tells me, “put it through the shop, put filled the shop with grass, and then had a skate contest right through it.”
Boise skaters are lucky. They get all this plus stellar single-origin coffee.
Recommended drink: Americano
Broken Board Coffee
Sometimes coffee/skate shop hybrids are born out of ingenuity. Back during the pandemic, a Madison, Wisconsin coffee lover named Jared Kist was offered some counter space inside of a spot called Focus Boardshop, which had been selling skateboards and equipment to support the college town’s skate scene for going on 20 years.
The space and budget were tight at first, but Jaredโs background in working in the restaurant industry and graphic design gave him the creative freedom to push the boundaries of the cafe, which he named Broken Board. โArt has been so closely intertwined with skating culture since the beginning,” Kist tells me. “Every time I release a new graphic, itโs like releasing new deck artwork. People dig it.โ
Drawing inspiration from the skate community has pushed Kist to get creative with the coffee drink specials, artwork, and overall feel of Broken Board. His appreciation for the culture in turn keeps the community coming back for a drink. This might be the only cafe in America with a Powell Peralta Steve Caballero Cab Chinese Dragon deck hanging behind the bar, and and a deck tip with the trucks and wheels still attached act as the iPad holder. It’s skater heaven, basically.
Recommended drink: Espresso Tonic
Idlewild
Idlewild is owner Jared Amburnโs โlittle shop that could.โ From farmers market pop-ups to two locations with lines out the door, the Austin, Texas communityโs dedication to Idlewild is born out of love. โPeople who come here donโt really go anywhere else,” Amburn tells me. “Idlewild is their spot. I think thatโs tight.โ
Amburn saw firsthand his communityโs support when the city was threatening to tear down the building a few years prior. โThe community immediately rallied around the skate shop and let the city know, they would not allow it to happen. As a result of the massive pushback, we survived.โ Integrating into the No-Comply skate shop, Idlewild has deepened their spot as a strong community hub for skaters and friends who could then gather over a coffee.
Coffee wasnโt Amburnโs background, but determination to make his shop concept work stems from a skater mentality. You practice the trick as many times as it takes to get that one successful run, and then you aim higher. Now Idlewild is working on its own roast and creating drinks that appeal to the craft and artistic expression of coffee.
“Itโs a sport yes, but itโs art,” Jared Amburn says. “Itโs expression, and itโs freedom.โ
Recommended Coffee: Cold brew
Brianna Fox-Priestย is a freelance journalist in Japan covering coffee, video games, and Japanese pop culture.ย Read more Brianna Fox-Priest on Sprudge.
